One of our local community colleges has finally begun offering programs related to emergencies and survival. I enrolled this afternoon.

One of these new courses, "Emergency Planning: Better Safe Than Sorry," is being taught for three hours by a local fire marshal one evening in March. I believe the $65 is well worth it.

The other course, "Wilderness Survival: The Skill To Survive," is being taught for five Tuesday evenings from April to May at two hours each. Again, I believe the $125 is worth it.

Has anyone else taken similar courses?

-- Craig

No, I haven't taken any courses like that, but I'd like to.

I'm kind of waiting for some decent stuff to show up around NYC because so far everyone who is teaching survival is trying to cash on 911 fears. Basically they show bunch of 911 pictures, some Cold War duck and cover crap, followed by army WMD slides, than few web urls and that's it. And none of those guys know anything or would even know how to survive day on his own. The funniest one was when we had a 3 day lecture on that stuff from some self announced expert that my school paid loads of money for. When he got to the part about stuff you need to have on you I just emptied out my pockets. I asked to see his and he didn't have anything but he said that he has a survival kit in the car. So far the best few lectures I had was with Emergency Services Unit cop from NYPD that knew his stuff and laid it out to us pretty well but he does what he loves and you could have seen that right away by the way he spoke.

I've been to several and hope to attend more. Do yourself a favor ( and the instructor.) Leave what you think is your knowledge at the door. I like to evaluate a course from the perspective of a complete novice. Sometimes one instructor will have a natural gift or different way of teaching something. If I'm half attentive to a familiar subject, I miss the unfamiliar. Of course, if you have something valid to contribute do so. A good instructor is one who learns from, or molds students to 'raise the bar' of the subject. Everyone has a persona. Peter at Reevis Mountain School likes to discuss reincarnation around the fire. Of course, this is AFTER Peter teaches everyone to make a friction fire. Now if somebody started talking about Area 51 during a navigation class I'd feel probed, violated and abducted. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like good advice to me. I intend to speak when spoken to. Otherwise, I shall keep my mouth shut, more or less, but have my eyes and ears wide open.